Summary: It’s all about Daft Punk, their origins, history, music, etc. Note: This will likely need some thorough editing (I tend to write awkward sentences…) Note: Also if the layout person could use picture #2 as a background and then set the text as white, that would be great. By: Erik Yan
Daft Punk: Daft Punk is an iconic electronic music duo that became extremely popular during the late 1990’s. Specializing in electronic, techno, and house music, Daft Punk is well known for their unique loops, acidic beats, and thick mixtures of bass-‐lines. The French duo, Guy-‐ Manuel de Homem-‐Christo and Thomas Bangalter, have created an Electro legacy for themselves and undoubtedly followed a strange and unique path into the music industry. In 1987, the lives of Guy-‐Manuel de Homem-‐Christo and Thomas Bangalter converged when the two met on the playground of Lycée Carnot, a secondary school in Paris. The two quickly became close friends, and eventually formed a small indie-‐punk rock band in 1992 called Darlin’ which consisted of Guy-‐Manuel de Homem-‐Christo, Thomas Bangalter, and Laurent Brancowitz (Contact). Bangalter played the bass, de Homem-‐Christo played the guitar, while Brancowitz played the drums. The band released songs under the record label Duophonic, releasing a debut single that sold about 1,500 copies. The single received mainly optimistic reviews, as the single was a promising start for the young band. But not all critics were as kind, such as the British music journal Melody Maker, who dismissed the band’s music as “daft punk” (daft is British slang for something that is silly or stupid). The band Darlin’ continued to perform local gigs and release songs with little success and recognition by the community. "The rock n' roll thing we did was pretty average, I think.” Said Bangalter, “It was so brief, maybe six months, four songs and two gigs and that was it" (Petridis, and Tope). The band eventually disbanded in 1993, leading to Bangalter and de Homem-‐Christo’s initial exploration of electronic style music. "We just got bored with rock 'n' roll” said Bangalter, “we got bored with the sound, so we started trying different things" (Adcock). Soon after, the duo began to produce their unique and innovative electronic/house music style. De Homem-‐Christo and Bangalter attended a rave at Euro-‐Disney in 1993, where they met Stuart Macmillan of Slam and co-‐founder of the small Scottish record label Soma. The duo gave their demo tape to Macmillan, who eventually signed the two a year later. De Homem-‐Christo and Bangalter decided to take the amusing critical remarks of the music journal Melody Maker, and dubbed themselves as Daft Punk. They later released their début album New Wave in 1994 that contained an “acidic mix of beats and bass-‐ lines”(NME). Soon after, Daft Punk returned to the studio in May 1995 to record the single Da Funk, which brought them a lot of commercial success.
De Homem-‐Christo and Bangalter decided they would need a manager for their new group, so they hired Pedro Winter, who often promoted Daft Punk at his Hype nightclubs. The duo also decided to sign with Virgin Records in September 1996, "Many record companies offered us deals," said Bangalter, "they came from everywhere, but we decided to wait-‐-‐partly because we didn't want to lose control of what we had created. We turned down many record companies" (Adcock). Daft Punk made a deal with Virgin Records, through which they licensed their tracks to the major label through their production company Daft Trax. By March 25, 1997 Daft Punk released their debut album Homework, which featured their singles “Da Funk” and “Alive”. The album was a success as it sold well over two million copies world wide, and received gold and platinum certifications. The album is often regarded as one of the most influential dance music albums of the nineties that brought worldwide attention to French progressive house music. Two of the most notable songs of the album were “Around The World” and “Da Funk”. The duo did not release another album until March 13, 2001 titled Discovery. The album took on a smoother and distinctly synth pop-‐oriented style, initially stunning fans of Daft Punk's previous material in Homework. The album still managed to become a huge success and broaden the fan-‐base of Daft Punk. Near 2005, the album sold well over 2.5 million albums and peaked as the #3 top electronic album of 2001. The single “One More Time” was highly successful as it reached #1 on the Canadian Singles chart, and the Dance Music/Club Play Singles and #2 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-‐Singles Sales in 2000. The single “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” peaked at #3 on the Dance Music/Club Play Singles in 2001. Finally, the single “Face to Face” reached its peak success as #1 on the Dance Music/Club Play Singles in 2004. Daft Punk also released the live album Alive 1997 in 2001, which contained a 45-‐ minute recording of a live performance at the Que Club in Birmingham on November 8, 1997. Their third studio album was Human After All, which was released on March 14, 2005. The album is often noted for its combination of minimalism and rock style with Daft Punks typical House music style. The album received many mixed reviews as critics felt the album was rushed due to its reported six-‐week creation, and that the tracks were overly repetitive and low quality. The album peaked as #1 on the Top Electronic Albums chart in 2005, and was later nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2006. The tracks on the album Human After All did not receive as much commercial success as the tracks on Daft Punk’s previous album Discovery. The highest rated singles included “Robot Rock” and “Technologic”, which peaked at #7 and #9 on the Hot Dance Singles Sales respectively in 2005. On November 19, 2007 Daft Punk released their second live album Alive 2007, which was a recording of their performance at Bercy in Paris on June 14, 2007. The album received positive reviews overall, and featured the single “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”.
The album ranked #1 on the Top Electronic Albums chart in 2007 and eventually won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. The single “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in 2009. In 2009 Daft Punk created eleven new mixes of their music for the video DJ Hero, in which they also appeared as playable characters. The following year Daft Punk was admitted into the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (The Order of Arts and Letters), which is one of the many prestigious Orders of France. Both de Homem-‐Christo and Bangalter were awarded with the rank of Chevalier (Knight), in recognition of their significant contribution to the musical arts. Recently, Daft Punk has continued to shake the Electro music industry with their infectious tracks and albums, such as their 2010 Tron: Legacy soundtrack album. The soundtrack album peaked as #1 on the Top Soundtracks, Top Digital Albums, and Top Electronic Albums in 2010. The album was also #1 on the Top Electronic Albums, Top Soundtracks, and Top Electronic Albums in 2011. The soundtrack album’s singles received moderate success, as the single “Derezzed” peaked at #14 on the Most Added and Heartseekers Songs, while the single “The Game Has Changed” was #15 on the Most Added chart in 2011. De Homem-‐Christo and Bangalter are undoubtedly veterans of the Electronic House music style, and continue to produce outstanding music under the group name Daft Punk. They have transformed and redefined French house music, and are a group that millions of fans continue to support. Whether the duo will continue to produce tracks for years to come is a question that only Daft Punk can answer. "I don't know if we will do this forever, we just like doing it now, we just want to be happy.” Said De Homem-‐Christo, “But you can't sit in front of your television all day just because it makes you happy. It's really up to us-‐-‐we can just take our time” (Adcock).
Sources: "Daft Punk." All Music. n. Page. Web. 5 May. 2012. <http://allmusic.com/artist/daft-punkp168791>. "Daft Punk." Wikipedia. n. Page. Web. 5 May. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daft_Punk Adcock, Donna. "Turns In Their Homework." Yahoo! Music. 15 8 1997: n. page. Web. 7 May. 2012. <http://web.archive.org/web/20070809052134/http://music.yahoo.com/read/interview/12052857 >.
Petridis, Alexis, and Frank Tope. "Do You Think You Can Hide From Stardom?." Mixmag. 8 1997: n. page. Web. 7 May. 2012. <http://www.techno.de/mixmag/97.08/DaftPunk.a.html>. "Daft Punk Biography." Contact Music. n.d. n. page. Web. 7 May. 2012. <http://www.contactmusic.com/info/daft_punk>.
Article Pictures: 1. Daft Punk Cover Art: http://images2.alphacoders.com/673/67392.jpg 2. Daft Punk Background: http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8300000/Daft-‐Punk-‐daft-‐punk-‐8312169-‐ 1680-‐1050.jpg 3. Daft Punk (Unmasked): http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxmvmla3vA1r41m9ko1_500.jpg 4. Daft Punk (Masked: Original Style): http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/12/13/Daft_071213120625242_wideweb__300x 375.jpg 5. Daft Punk (Masked: Tron Style): http://prettymuchamazing.com/images/dptronsuits.jpg 6. Daft Punk Cover Art: http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/244/b/9/daft_punk_logo_by_ravinart-‐d2xspj6.jpg 7. Extra Daft Punk Art: http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/040/e/e/Daft_Punk_Wallpaper_by_MeNaCexTIGE R.png